A batch of 37 female overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) repatriated from Syria, arrive at 4 p.m. Friday (March 7) via EK 332. OWWA personnel and from Office of the Vice President (center photo) assist the returning OFWs upon their arrival at the Gate 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1. (MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – There are at least 807 Filipinos detained around the world for smuggling drugs, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said Thursday as it reiterated its warning for travelers, particularly overseas workers, not to allow themselves to be recruited as mules, or couriers.
The agency re-issued the warning following reports about the death sentences handed down by Vietnam on two Filipinos who attempted to smuggle cocaine into the country and the arrest of a Filipina in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for bringing in three kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride, or “shabu.”
According to PDEA, of the Filipinos jailed on drug charges as of July this year, 401 are males and 406 females.
Of these, 34 are in Malaysian jails, while 12 others are detained in Vietnam.
“PDEA may sound like a broken record but we will continue to issue warnings to safeguard all Filipinos traveling overseas, even if these cautions fall on deaf ears because some of our countrymen continue to smuggle illegal drugs to make quick cash. The bottom line, however, remains the same, being a drug mule is a senseless act of risking one’s life and future over drug money,” the agency’s director general, Arturo Cacdac Jr., said. (MNS)